Ever since the first time I saw a preview for Precious, I knew I was intrigued and would have to see it. I was not at all prepared, however, for the many layers and levels of abuse Precious endures. Mo-nique stars as her terrifying tyrant of a mother, a virtually unrecognizable Mariah Carey as her social worker. The verbal abuse alone had me sobbing as I watched, and  at several points I almost had to turn it off, but I am so glad I didn’t. Gabouray Sidibe really gave her all in this role, the viewer empathizes with her and wants to rescue her.

The abusive, commanding and all-around shock-inducing Momma, Precious' mother.

Another film I watched just last night: Brothers. This one stars Jake Gyllenhaal as troubled brother Tommy, Natalie Portman as Grace, the loving wife and mother to two little girls and Captain Sam Cahill, played by Tobey McGuire. Sam goes to war and his plane crashes almost immediately. Sam survives with a friend and fellow Marine, unbeknownst to anyone else.  The two are kidnapped and kept alive, starved and tortured. Grace and Tommy receive word Sam is dead, and try to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives while growing slightly closer. Sam is made to do the unthinkable in order to return to his family unharmed, but when he does, the horror of war and demands slay at him and his paranoia spins out of control.

Grace making a futile attempt to reach Sam.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

After watching the movie in the theater, my friends and I had a long, and admittedly somewhat drunken, conversation about the lessons learned from Fantastic Mr. Fox and his existential dilemmas. Because sometimes, you’re just a wild animal at heart.

The fact that that the cast was so star-studded — Meryl Streep, George Clooney, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, the list goes on — was merely icing on the cake.

I know a lot of people that went to see Fantastic Mr. Fox in the theater more than once, which is pretty rare. I can’t wait to see it again, and I never watch movies twice.

As much as I was pleased by Fantastic Mr. Fox, I was a bit disappointed when I finally went to see Precious. Maybe it’s just that it got so built up in my mind — I actually went to the store to buy a pack of tissues beforehand — that it ended up falling short. It felt a little bit like I already knew the whole story from the trailer, which seemed like a montage of all of the most emotionally climactic scenes in the movie. I can understand doing that for a mostly fluff movie like Notorious, but Precious has depth and substance. Why ruin it?

Precious

Last year I thankfully managed to get tickets to the premiere of Gomorra in which Roberto Saviano staged a Q&A whilst watched on by the Swedish security services. It was certainly a different atmosphere than a usual premiere.

This year there are a few films which have sparked my interest. The first is The Cove - a documentary by Louie Psihoyos which has him and his team unravel the terrible secret behind a cove in the Japanese coastal town of Taiji. The second is a Swedish animated sci-fi film by Tarek Saleh – Metropia. The third, is a little strange for my taste - Precious, based on the book ‘Push’ by Sapphire. The trailer looks great though the thought of Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz acting in a film, well, turn me off a little. We shall see…

Like everyone else in the world, I can’t wait to see ”Where the Wild Things Are.” I loved the book — almost as much as I liked In the Night Kitchen and Really Rosie, two of Sendak’s other masterpieces.  Like everyone else, I love that “Where the Wild Things Are” is dark, adult, strange. I love that Arcade Fire is doing the soundtrack. I love it all so much that I considered sewing myself a white suit with a hood and putting a crown on for Halloween.

My favorite book of all time: In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak

This weekend is the beginning of the SF DocFest, conveniently located in my neighborhood. Documentary films are really the only kind I’ll take a chance on in a festival, because most often the subject is compelling (or educational), even if it’s not done well. They have a great website that allows you to create your own schedule (and even a scheduling wizard that checks with your existing iCal for conflicts — and suggests alternative showtimes). Oddly enough, the film I am most excited about is called Dust and Illusions, about the history of Burning Man. Even though I’ve been to Burning Man and really love it, I usually avoid everything Burning Man in San Francisco due to people’s cult-like obsession with it here.